My trip through the Starmaze: a world in the 9th dimension

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/17/my-trip-through-the-starmaze.html

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This is gorgeous! I too am inspired.

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This is super-interesting and also sorely in need of a (more…) for BB blog view.

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Dear Jane, that was a great writeup of a great project of Cartan’s, and I love to hear of young people getting rewardingly deep into a topic like this. Here is a recommendation for you, I think you would really love Lee Sallow’s book “Geometric Magic Squares”.

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After reading about the Starmaze, that was all I could ever think about during these times of sitting in a soundless classroom in the middle of the day.

hmm…tread lightly with obsessions over mapping out things involving shapes and patterns…

Excellent write up of a great journey between your imagination and a tangible (and gorgeous) output. Not surprising that they look like middle eastern tapestries and/or mandala patterns. Amazing amounts of mathematical wisdom from so long ago.

I came across Rucker’s book (and Mayakovsky) while exploring higher dimensional geometries back in architecture school - to try to ‘collapse‘ the experience of moving thru a building over time (Which is what we do), as opposed to drawing a static representation of a floor plan or elevation (Which you’d only really kinda get hovering above it in a helicopter). My profs didn’t have a clue what I was going for, but it ended up being a 60-foot long drawing that looked more like a musical score than an architectural drawing. Good times.

Well done.

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I just wish he could translate his 3D map into something like Unity, so that it can be explored in first person (or even better, in VR). You’d hav to do some coding with the slides and the pillars, but it would certainly be interesting.

Also, i think it might be an interesting and ambitious Minecraft project.

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Now there’s an idea…

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Rudy’s The Fourth Dimension was one of my favourite books in my youth (and still is, of course, I’ve just read a whole lot more since then). I used to carry one of the origami Necker cubes from that around with me everywhere, so I could dip into 4D whenever calm was threatened. I expect your source also has a copy of Mind Tools, another favourite and a good accompaniment.

Cartan’s story reads like it could be one of the main plots in an Umberto Eco book

That’s no Starmap! That’s a roadmap for Sunken R’lyeh! Seriously, though, as hopeless at maths as I am (failed Year 1 Applied Maths 3 times so had to drop out of my Instrumentation & Applied Physics degree) I find the tales of those who “get it” fascinating. What a project…

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